ASIO and police to interrogate Hicks

David Hicks, the Australian who allegedly fought with the al-Qaeda terrorist network and is now being held in a United States military prison, is to be interviewed by ASIO officers and federal police.

The key aim of the interrogation will be to find out more about his activities in Afghanistan to help decide whether he could face charges in Australia and avoid a US military tribunal that could sentence him to die.

An Australian foreign affairs official will also be present to check on his welfare and conditions at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

However, Hicks's lawyer, Stephen Kenny, said yesterday that it would be a travesty of justice if his client were to be interviewed without having an independent legal representative present");document.write("

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"He has been in a cage under lights, 24 hours a day for three months," Mr Kenny said. "I imagine any person kept for so long in such conditions would be emotionally fragile."

Mr Kenny said he would raise strong objections to any interviews conducted in such circumstances being used as evidence.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, confirmed that Australian intelligence and police officers would be seeking to collect information relevant to possible offences under Australian law.

"A decision will be made after the investigation is complete," she said.

The spokeswoman added that the issue of legal representation for Hicks had been raised with the US and that attention had been drawn to rules concerning what constituted legal evidence in Australia.

She said the issue was yet to be resolved and that the Government could not comment on whether the interview could go ahead without a lawyer present.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, said yesterday that Australian officials had for some time been seeking access to Hicks who, he said, had acted foolishly.

In January it was reported that ASIO and federal police officers had questioned Hicks before he was taken to Guantanamo Bay.

No details of that interrogation were released.

However, Australian intelligence officers are said to have been swapping information on Hicks with US intelligence agencies.

Hicks, 26, from Adelaide, left Australia in November 1999 and travelled to Pakistan.

It is alleged he entered Afghanistan the following year after training with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group the US has branded a terrorist organisation linked to al-Qaeda.

Hicks continues to be held without having been brought before a court or charged.

If, following the forthcoming interview at Guantanamo Bay jail, nicknamed Camp X-ray, a case emerges that an Australian law has been breached, federal police would prepare a brief and present it to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The DPP would then make a decision on whether Hicks should be charged with any crime if the US were to hand him over to Australian jurisdiction.